Spot(ify) the Difference

Before the coronavirus epidemic initiated the necessity of social distancing, I intended to meet privately with a Kansas City jazz musician to provide guidance on his approach to music streaming services.  Rather than conducting a Zoom session with the artist, I’ll outline my suggestions in this forum.

I commend him for not joining many of his indignant peers in posting misinformed memes about the ostensible evils of streaming services.  Spearheaded by industry leader Spotify, streaming services paid out $10,000,000,000.00 to musicians and their affiliates last year.  Yes, that’s ten billion dollars.  Artists can whine about penny fractions all they like, but popular musicians are raking in mountains of money.

How can my associate get in on the action?  First, he needs to stop behaving as if interacting with streaming services is beneath him.  While maintaining up-to-date profiles won’t make him a star, his current recalcitrance hinders his career.  In 2020, an artist’s Spotify account is an interactive business card that’s at least as important as a Wikipedia entry.

Adding a photo, biographical information, links to his web presence and maybe even microvisuals to his Spotify account won’t suddenly catapult the musician to fame and fortune, but at least it will provide him with a fighting chance.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)